I had to go. I was obligated. I’ve been writing Americana for 26 months now and had never been to two of our US states. Now I’m down to one and we’ve already planned a trip for the summer that will knock off that last one. I’ll have a perfect set!

Jeff planned a fun trip and once again, succeeded in providing 8 days of fascinating culture and history, and a variety of fun hikes, wondrous snorkeling and spectacular scenery. . .all on a relative shoestring. (Costs at the end.)

oil rising from the sunken battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor

We started out with a visit to Pearl Harbor. We got there early and got the free tickets for the boat out to the Arizona Memorial. The whole park is solemn, but rich in context of the times and mindset of all the warring countries. The sunken Arizona is one of three ships that was not salvaged and put back into commission during WW2. About 2 gallons of oil per day leaks up from the engines of the battleship turned tomb.

BEST of Arizona Memorial

In fact the Arizona itself is an active Cemetery. The bodies of about 940 soldiers are currently entombed there. Men who survived the attack on the Arizona have the option of having their remains laid to rest with their shipmates when they die. There are currently just 5 men remaining, ranging in age between 93 to 99. Two of those men have arranged to be cremated and have their ashes interred with their shipmates. It’s a holy place. The names of the men who died that day, Dec 7 1941 are inscribed on the back wall. The Arizona had the highest casualties because the Japanese bomb hit the Armory and detonated all of the ammunition on board.

Later that day, we toured the USS Missouri, which is now a museum. This ship was under construction on Pearl Harbor Day and didn’t enter the war until 1944. But she fought in subsequent wars, even the Gulf War, most recently. The guns on the deck are never fired to the front, but must be turned so that the percussion doesn’t blast a hole in the gun deck. It is most significant because the instruments of the Japanese surrender were signed on board in Tokyo Bay. This is the deck on the USS Missouri where the Japanese signed the papers that ended World War 2. It’s hard to comprehend what a powerful event that was! How many hundreds of thousands of lives were saved!

This is a little hard to read, but this is propaganda, dropped on American positions. Psychological warfare takes its toll, too.

Overall, Pearl Harbor and other sites around Oahu give context and incredible detail to help us understand what happened in Japan and in Germany that they could perpetrate the vast evil on the world that they did. Pride and power lust are a deadly combination.

On to the eastern side of the island for some spectacular views. This is Hanauma Bay. (below) It’s actually the ancient crater to a volcano. The open side eventually eroded enough to let in the sea and coral reefs grew. The amazing variety of colorful fish entertained us for a couple of hours snorkeling. But the weather was a little chilly and we needed to bask for a awhile just to warm up. (I didn’t expect the water to be so cool.)

Unexpected company as we ate our picnic on the grass above Hanauma Bay.

We hiked to this 100 foot waterfall, Manoa Falls. Lush, wet jungle and LOTS of other hikers.

I do look fat in this picture, but I’m wearing a bathingsuit with bunchy shorts underneath because I thought we could swim at this waterfall. We did swim later that day.

We hiked to the top of Diamond Head. That’s Waikiki in the background. Diamond head is actually the front edge of a volcanic crater. It was used as sort of a natural fortress during WW2. See the pill box on the little rise on the right side of the picture? One of the flights of stairs inside the Diamondhead crater. I’m standing opposite a long tunnel. There are 100 stairs in this flight.

Jeff on the Manoa Falls hike.

The Hawai’i temple in La’ie is more grand and impressive than we had realized. Attendees move from room to room in symbolic progression upward.

The Polynesian Culture Center is an Amazing highlight. Here are a few pictures I’m not using in the Americana column.

It is impossible to get a still photo that depicts the violence with which those ladies wiggle/shake their hips! I didn’t know I had joints that would do that!

roasted pig at the Luau

They were teaching us to twirl the fire sticks. Thank goodness they were not lit! See my temporary tattoo on my wrist?

Jeff getting ready to go into the water at Waikiki

That’s Waikiki from the other direction. We were lucky to have a warm, sunny morning even though rain was forecast all day. It wasn’t crowded at all, and on the Diamond Head end of the beach, there was good snorkeling a few feet off the beach. (Not good for regular swimming, however.)

Diamond head from a huge park on the end of Waikiki (plenty of free parking on that end of the beach, too.

Much too windy for sailing!

View from a steep hike to the Makapuu lighthouse overlook.

I have always had a fascination for lighthouses. They’re so wonderfully symbolic and each seems to have interesting tales associated with it. A WW2 plane was patrolling along the coast in bad weather during WW2. It mistook this lighthouse for the one below Diamond Head and crashed into the cliffs just behind the camera angle. 9 soldiers lost their lives.

This is the living room of our Air BnB

This is the kitchen of the Air BnB where we stayed in Aiea Cliffs like these are all over Oahu. Violent natural forces at work!

After snorkeling and basking at Waikiki in the morning, we explored another area of the island that was purported to have the most beautiful beaches of all. Yes, they were lovely. Though this beach was on the leeward side of the island, it was so windy that these kitesurfers were taking flight. On the left of the pictures, there is a guy doing a flip with his board. He looks kind of like a fly on the lens. There were about a dozen people windsurfing.

this 250 pound sea turtle was basking on Turtle Beach. Volcanic rocks surround the island and punctuate each beach.

We also went to Waimia Valley, but forgot our good camera. This has a fun hike to a swim-able waterfall and lovely botanical gardens. It was raining that day, so impeded our enjoyment somewhat, but still worth it. There are archaeological ruins with interpretive signs that depict native life before the pineapple growers took over the island (very literally). The gardens are conducting research for countries all over the world in preserving and improving native plants. It’s organized by country, too. If it hadn’t been so wet, we could have spent 5-6 hours there very easily. I also got to blow a conch shell. I thought it would be difficult but it’s about like blowing a trumpet. It squeaked a bit when I first tried, but I got the hang of it.

I had always wanted to see the Pipeline where the surfers are roaring down 40 foot swells. It’s hard to tell, but some of these waves were probably 20 feet! The picture doesn’t do it justice, but they were the biggest waves I’ve ever seen. . .

The Dole plantation was mostly a tourist trap. Stop in and have some pineapple soft serve ice cream, (Dole whip) It’s like gelato. . .expensive but worth it. We went to the botanical garden which was fun, but overpriced. Go up the highway a little farther and you can see the pineapples growing in the fields.

So. . .costs. Flights combined were a little under $1100. Lodging was an Air BnB $475 for 7 nights. (Incredible deal. Nice apartment, good location, excellent hostess) rental car $200 Picked up and dropped off at the airport. $150 in Restaurants and treats. $73 on groceries, (We made lunches most days.)

The Polynesian Cultural Center gave me free press passes but the day admission, all-you-can-eat-luau and dinner show and Ha, Breath of Life show in the theater (with astonishing firedancers and great entertainment) would have been $115 apiece. SO WORTH IT! If you go all the way to Oahu, bite the bullet and go for the gusto at the PCC!

The Arizona Memorial is free to everyone, but reserve tickets in advance, or get there early in the day.

The USS Missouri museum costs $27 per adult, but those tickets were also given as a press pass. Also worth it for adults. (Kids, not so much.)

Parking for hikes, Admission to Hanauma bay, etc, total about $75.

We spent about $50 on souvenirs.

All total, about $2025. If we’d had to pay for the USS Missouri and PCC it would have been almost $300 more. We were gone 8 days.

I have been following the Gun Control debate with interest. But nobody is addressing the most important argument of all. The Elephant in the room (happening to represent one party) is an issue of freedom.

It was stated most simply by a lady we met in China. She was a Chinese lady who spoke good English. She had traveled to visit her daughter in the US a few times and had insight into the two cultures and governments.

She said not one word while we were at Tienanmen Square about the massacre of peaceful people protesting Communism. Later, on the bus when the soldiers were out of earshot, she said. “The Chinese people know nothing about the killing that happened on Tienanmen Square. The government tells us that the Chinese are the happiest, wealthiest, safest people in the world every night on the ‘news’. It’s not really news. It’s propaganda. But we can’t do anything about our government because we have no guns. There is nowhere in China that we can buy guns. Only the government has guns, so they have all the power. In America, you have guns, so the people have power.”
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787

No, assault rifles had not been invented when the right to gun ownership was guaranteed by the Constitution., But thinking in terms of the citizen population needing equal firepower to their government to keep the government in it’s proper place, I believe they would have endorsed citizens being legally allowed to own whatever common weapon is issued to military.

That’s why, in my opinion, that liberals pivot to disarming citizens with every incident of gun violence. They yearn for a government more like China or Russia, and oppressive governments are impossible when the citizenry is well armed. I think it’s reasonable to believe that the more equal the citizenry’s weapons to the generally distributed personal arms in the military, the safer our Democratic Republic and Bill of Rights.

Which states do you think are safest from the government, those where rifles are commonly owned or those that consider it immoral?

In California, you can own an AR-15 (which has a clip that holds 20 bullets, but you have to put a little screw at the 10 bullet mark so that it can only fire 10. It creates an inconvenience at the firing range and seems ridiculous in principle. The difference in the hands of a kook is insignificant. He doesn’t mind committing the crime of removing the screw before he goes into a crowded place to murder people.

Interesting fact I read yesterday. Mass shooters in America have come from broken homes with no significant father figure. The problem we should be addressing has nothing to do with guns, it has to do with the disintegration of the family and values.

(Side note) I think we’d be far wiser to ban violent video games and target violence pornography. If we stop kids from fantasizing about killing, the actions won’t follow.

One more, (mostly unrelated) comment about hunters. I changed my view 180 degrees when we moved to Colorado 25 years ago. The antlered vermin could devour my young fruit trees and chomp down my garden and lop off my flowers like lollipops except in a short season when hunters could go far away from residences and thin out the herd. I HOPED that they were hunting near us. In places like the Air Force Academy, (where there are hundreds of wooded acres) hunting was allowed about every 5th year because the deer overpopulate when not harvested. Overpopulation causes the deer to die of starvation and become vulnerable to disease.

The vast majority of hunters I have known eat the animal they kill. They have a freezer full of venison, elk or antelope steaks and roasts. When they have shared with me, I have enjoyed the meat. I would have no qualms about killing the animal myself if it was convenient, but it sounds like a boring undertaking to me. In my experience, hunters consider the annual hunt a combination of a fun camping trip to enjoy nature and a harvest of meat. Unless you’re a vegetarian, (See 1 Timothy 4:3) you have little moral argument against hunting. I guess my point is that there’s a difference between those who are bloodthirsty and those who hunt for the fun of obtaining a large supply of good quality protein while enjoying nature.I see no difference morally between hunting and fishing. I object, in both cases to those who let the flesh go to waste. Killing for the pleasure of killing is evil.

But an armed people is a free people. We must keep a balance between citizenry and military lest we end up like China. . .with no power.

Tricia’s pregnant belly was so outstanding (in the very literal sense) I had to share it. The baby blessing and family photo were taken 6 days later. After just two weeks, Tricia had lost 30 pounds.

I tried to shed the pounds that were creeping back, but the older I get, the harder it gets.

So I joined Weight Watchers (again) I like it because I don’t feel hungry and eat a balanced diet. It’s a lot easier to eat just one cookie when you know you are going to take a hit in points for every bite. If you are thinking of joining, do it the DAY BEFORE you go grocery shopping.

There is a free app issued by the US government called “My Plate” that is similar to the old version of Weight Watchers. It can work if you’re diligent, but I think Weight Watchers is much easier. Probably the most important difference is the free foods. You can fill up on 0 point foods and even when eating as much of those foods as you want, calories tend to remain low. They’ve added some free foods that are good protein sources that make it satisfying. The tracking has been streamlined and simplified, too, so it’s easier than before.

No, this is NOT a paid endorsement!

Next, how to be humble:

Two new grandbabies have joined the Stephenson family. Jeff and I spent a total of three weeks travelling and visiting (and hopefully helping.) I don’t think there is anything more profound or spiritual than holding a newborn baby. I feel the love of our Heavenly Father so abundantly and my gratitude is deep!

While there, Tricia commented that when she visited other families she came away grateful that her children are easier than most. Both her older kids were in their naps at the moment. Three-year-old McCoey had said he wasn’t tired and Tricia had allowed him to take paper and crayons into his nap to sit at the little table and color while Gracie slept.

She should have frisked him first. After about an hour, we heard a bit of stirring and Jeff peeked in. He noticed that Grace was out of her pack n play. He quietly shut the door and then checked again a moment later when we heard more stirring. Grace was in her pack n play. But McCoey was hiding behind the pack n play. That’s when Jeff noticed the Gracie-sized hole in the mesh wall of the pack n play.

We soon noticed that McCoey had a pair of safety scissors in his hand.

I asked him if he had cut the hole in the pack n play and the little saint said, “I don’t think so.” I pressed a little more and Grace (who is 2) was accused. I pressed a little more and he said, “well, maybe I did.”

Tricia got up from her nap and immediately noticed that McCoey had a new haircut.

As she picked up the tufts from the corner of the bedroom, she realized that not only were there tufts of McCoey’s hair, Gracie’s hard earned golden curls were mixed in, too!

Grace has been follicularly challenged but has finally (at age 2) achieved some delicately curling hair on the back of her head and some on top… He left the one curl on top. I suppose if she can grow it once, she can do it again.

McCoey is usually a very helpful and polite little person. But new babies rock everybody’s worlds. He may yet grow up to be a fine, upstanding man like George Washington, (who is said to have admitted cutting down the cherry tree,). I wonder if part of the story is that first he blamed it on his sister. . .and THEN his conscience got the better of him. But I wonder if George Washington would have thought to cut off his sister’s few little curls?

Time will tell. I’ll update in about 20 years.

Almost the first thing Kate (Daniel’s daughter) said to me when I got to their house in Texas was, “Grandma, you look bigger than the last time I saw you.”

Why is it fine for me to say that to her, but not cool at all that she say the exact same thing to me?

Most of getting older is terrific. Grandkids are great fun and I am profoundly grateful that I can experience this new kind of love.

Maybe the two elements of this post are more related than I had thought. Maybe women are supposed to get soft and cuddly to invite the wee grand little souls to us for a snuggle. Maybe a little extra cushioning isn’t the worst thing…

I apologize to all who hate all politics. If you do, stop reading now.

I watched President Trump’s state of the Union address. After all, my column, Americana, is about Everything Good in America! Surely if there are good things happening in America, it would be highlighted in our President’s speech.

I was pleased by his demeanor. I’m sure his speech writers worked long and hard to shape not only his image but the tone of his message. Frankly, I don’t think he (or anybody) could have done better. The only criticism that a literary folk like I might complain about was the addition of unnecessary adjectives, (wonderful, beautiful, terrific, horrible etc). Pretty small stuff, eh? But then again, the use of superlatives is quintessential Trump. And when read in print, it leaves no room for shading his meaning.

I appreciated the tact and subtlety in referencing our illegal alien problems when he said, “Americans are dreamers, too.” I wonder if the legal voters who oppose him realize that the huge toll illegal immigrants have on our society detours vast amounts of money that could otherwise be used to improve life for citizens in our inner cities, schools and make dangerous neighborhoods safer for honest, law abiding citizens.

He courageously highlighted the obvious truth that American leaders first obligation is to serve American interests. When America is strong and thriving, historically, we export prosperity around the world. Trump wants to make America great by serving AMERICANS first. It is his and every single representatives’, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, sworn oath to do so.

It’s not that I don’t have compassion for those who bring their families here for a better life. If I lived in Mexico or some other Latin American country, I would do whatever it took to bring my children here, whatever the price. But it truly is in the best interest of America to prevent illegals from draining our resources away from the most needy in America.

It astonished me to hear how the ABC commentators framed his speech. I am pretty certain that they had printed out their responses before they even heard the speech.

ABC, I have to wonder if you realized that everybody who heard your comments had just watched the speech. People who do that are going to have their own feelings and responses.

WE HEARD the president say several times that he wanted to work with both parties to solve problems. That is not divisive, it is unifying, if the minority has any interest in working for a better America.

WE SAW the rows of sullen Democrats sit on their hands when Trump lauded American Heroes and drew attention to victims of evil.

WE WATCHED in astonishment as reporters billed the “rebuttal” by Joe Kennedy as “a much more unifying speech” IN ADVANCE of his giving it.

WE SAT in astonishment as Joe Kennedy, (handsome, rich, (with a net worth of $43 million at age thirty-ish which he did not earn, but received from his incredibly rich white privileged family) and appealing, despite his overuse of vaseline,) talked about the poor and downtrodden WITHOUT PROPOSING ONE SINGLE SOLUTION TO ONE SINGLE PROBLEM. I also noted that in a room full of well-dressed Democrats, there was only one black person visible and nobody of any other race. And wouldn’t a rebuttal, if offered as an answer to Trump, have more credibility if it ALSO was given in front of a mixed party audience?

If I were an ABC reporter, I would have refused to read a script of such nonsense, no matter how much I hated the President. It was an insult to their viewers, and utterly destructive of their own credibility as news reporters.

It did however boost their value as potential comedy performers.

I assume that some of the statistics are massaged to reflect better than actual facts, though I have no examples of that. But after researching Obama’s flagrantly misleading use of numbers I have to concede that it may be a common political practice.

I also know that no massaging was necessary when speaking of the truth that American businesses of all sizes are optimistic and thriving. That President Donald Trump has delivered on his promises to business in spectacular fashion. His ideas and economic concepts are working.

The result of thriving businesses is showing to be better than trickle down: it’s flowing straight into the pockets of American workers. Perhaps the wealthy are getting wealthier, (by my standards, coming from a single teacher/coach income family), I’m rich and our retirement account is getting richer.) But if the rich are getting richer, we/they are also buying more products, using more services, tipping, sharing, donating more. If you doubt me, look at the numbers for charitable donations in the last year. So the poor are getting richer, too.

Again, if you doubt me, look at the statistics. More importantly, note the upward mobility of the poorest citizens. Americas poor are not as poor as they used to be, and most American workers steadily increase their net worth throughout their lives.

I am sick to death of the left pointing out big salaries for CEO’s. The numbers involved are so tiny compared with the general economy that if you fired every one of the top twenty highest paid CEO’s and confiscated their yearly salaries, you could give every American worker, (whether employed or not,) a whopping $5. FIVE SMACKERS! That’s a one time payment, not a raise or recurring event.

If I was so lucky to get that largess, I’d use a Subway coupon and buy a footlong sandwich!

But if there were no CEO’s, businesses would flounder. Soon they wouldn’t be hiring. Soon there would not be money to pay employees. Unemployment would rise and we’d slide first into a recession and then into a depression. Companies, like families, churches, schools, and every other organization, need leaders. In the case of business, the best leaders are the most profitable for the company and all its employees, and so they are paid the most. But anxious is the head that wears the crown. They are also the most likely to be fired for non-performance.

I thought it was courageous of Trump to call out the vicious gang MS-13. Though no Democrats seemed to approve, their constituents in the inner cities live in fear of this pervasive evil. Most of these gang members are of Latin American descent and enter the country as unaccompanied minors. Their common hand sign is the index and pinky held up in a ‘devil horns salute.’ Held upside down, it signifies the “M” for Mara. The 13 refers to the 13 second beating new members must survive before becoming members.

Wasn’t it fascinating that the Black Caucus didn’t clap or cheer when the President commented that Black unemployment is down by half? Why not? Why not indeed!

The ABC commentators swooned over the fact that some of the Black United States Congressmen were wearing their Kinta Cloths. So they are not Americans? They don’t want what’s best for Americans? If they are identified only by their ancestral origins, as they emphasize by their African adornments, are we to understand that they are only interested in the well-being of Africans?

Black Americans are doing better. Isn’t that something to celebrate? It seems to me that their hostile response indicates that they realize that when Trump succeeds in making life better for their constituents, they lose power and influence. Their oppressive tactics that maintain their power and encourage dependency are weakened as the people are empowered to succeed without them. No wonder they’re frowning. They’re being exposed for the corrupt and oppressive people they are. If Black Americans thrive, they lose. No wonder they hate Trump.

It’s a true fact that unemployment is down across all demographics. It’s indeed a direct result of friendly business policies. Trump deserves credit.

The extreme tactics resorted to by his enemies: hurling accusations, charges and innuendos without regard for truth suggest just how much of a threat to their patterns of oppression he is.

I don’t endorse Trumps morals. From what I observed of him before he had political aspirations, personal morality was not important to him. Ironically, that’s the one thing the Lefties can’t bring up or exploit because of the well-known immorality/drug use by Democrat heroes like Clinton, Kennedy (s) and Obama.

It’s almost hilarious that the media is having such a fit over the crass comments Trump made about some black nations when Hillary Clinton herself is known to have a vicious potty-mouth extraordinaire.

But I digress. Like him or not, President Trump is doing a fantastic job. He’s truly creating a path to making America great again.

The only question that remains is whether we, as a people, have sunk into immorality and evil to the degree that God cannot longer continue to bless this land and people. When/if that is true, no mortal leader, no matter how talented and no matter how righteous will be able to rescue us.

If we want to receive good, we must BE good, work hard, be honest and committed to the cause of promoting righteousness.

Many readers of CCC know my family. I have a daughter and six sons. I admit that I have to rationalize my pride in them. When does pride in one’s children become unrighteous?

Here’s how I have figured it out. Pride is unrighteous when it is competitive. Since I feel no competition, but merely wish to rejoice and to have those who care about me to rejoice with me, I am going to share some of our recent good news.

Today, Daniel successfully defended his Dissertation! When he finishes his Internship in August, he will be a doctor of psychology. He intends to work as a prison psychologist.

Tricia and Walt are about to have a baby girl. Daniel and Lindsay have a baby boy due the same day. Rob and Marseille are expecting this summer (gender or genders yet unknown)

Scott joined a dental practice in Pocatello, ID, last summer. It’s so fun to have him finished with the Army and settling in.

Brian will be starting Medical School in May. He and Kelsi will be moving to St. Martaans. (Caribbean island)

Chris is plugging away at BYU-I. He changed his major back to ‘Business’ from ‘Financial Economics’ because of a more favorable job path after graduation. He’ll have 2 semesters after the current one.

Thomas is a sophomore at BYU, also majoring in ‘business’. He wants to earn an MBA. I think he still wants to do family financial counseling/planning.

My column, Americana runs in two newspapers (we’re working on others) and is doing well. The Oklahoman has an ‘online share’ tally with the online version, and it is not uncommon for articles to reach several hundred shares. Thanks to ALL my readers for that!

Most exciting, I’m working on a new book project. It’s a memoir of a man who was born with a lethal disease. As a newborn, he went from the hospital where he was delivered to a hospital for terminally ill patients.

Obviously, he didn’t die, but grew up in the hospital with the expectation that all his friends died. He was rejected by his family and addicted to the pain killers used to sedate him in infancy.

But there were angels in his life, too, some from the most unexpected quarters of society. It’s a story of triumph and God’s ultimate love finding us, no matter how dark the corner where we hide. I want to finish it by the end of 2018.

Jeff is enjoying his retirement, complete with season tickets to BYU football and basketball, planning Americana story-finding trips, and enjoying family.

Since I have no official parameters for this blog, I have to say, there a a plethora of good movies out right now. My daughter-in-law Kimberly brought “Hidden Figures” to our New Year’s weekend and it was fantastic. Its a true story of the mathematicians working for NASA. They were all black women and had some of the finest minds of their age. It’s so inspiring and family appropriate. Little kids wouldn’t be interested, of course, but I loved it.

Then we saw “The Man Who Invented Christmas” which was about Charles Dickens writing “A Christmas Carol.” I LOVED this one, but if you aren’t very familiar with the story, (including lines and characters) you might not enjoy it as much. I heard others in the theater saying that they hadn’t been able to follow it very well. That’s because you have to know which are real people and which are merely characters in the story Dickens is trying to write. The appear and disappear without explanation. I really enjoyed that method of staging, but it could have drawbacks. After Jeff and I saw it, we took my Mom to see it. Mom and I watched the George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol at home first to freshen it up in Mom’s mind. She seemed to enjoy it too.

Next we saw The Greatest Showman. It was not only entertaining, but loosely based on real history. There never was romance between Jenny Lind and PT Barnum, nor did the circus develop the way it is shown in the movie. Both his young partner and the trapezist are fictional characters too, but since PT Barnum was indeed a great showman, I doubt he would have minded much about the embellishments. The added romantic tension is fun. Here’s another fun fact, PT Barnum never was recorded as saying “There’s a sucker born each minute.” That was criticism lodged at him. He may have said some version as “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

I’ve heard that Coco is good and I want to see it this week.

We rented the most recent Spiderman movie and I enjoyed it too. I think I would have cast the kid who plays Spiderman as a little less of a weakling, but overall, it’s good comic book type fun.

I wasn’t all that interested in the New Star Wars movie since recent offerings have been lackluster in my estimation. I have not met a single person who said they loved it. Most have said “Meh, it’s okay.” Some have objected to the blatant feminist slant. I haven’t seen it and won’t until it’s on TV or in Redbox.

If anyone has other winners to recommend for a family audience, Please comment on this post!

I recently had a conversation with my sister in law where she argued against capitalism. She said that she had given up on it as an economic system and cited cooperative business models as an alternative. I argued the merits of the capitalism and expressed doubt that any such society existed. She later sent me a list of links to testimonials and “Ted talks” about cooperatives. She included comments of dismay over the gigantic salaries given to CEO’s. Since I spent much of my day researching the data and claims, Jeff suggested that I share my response to her on my blog. So here it is.

If you want to check my data claims, just google the questions and the data is readily available. But I caution you to read to the end of every post. Some have details about how the data used was collected or what incomes were counted only at the very end of the studies and in some cases it gives an entirely different picture if you consider that the methods were aimed to achieve a specific result.

Here is my response with some editing for clarity.

I watched several of the videos and did some research on the Italian system. I also did some fact checking for some of the claims.

Here is what I found.

The Ted talk with Jim Brown begins with him making a statement that the USA is a leader in world poverty. This is WILDLY untrue. The worldwide standard of poverty is earning less than $3.10 American-spending-power-adjusted dollars per day. There are dozens of countries around the world where their poverty numbers using the $3.10 number are over (some well over) 50%. That is the global standard for poverty.

In the USA, poverty levels are calculated on income reported to the Federal Govt. The figures do not include government funds such as food stamps or subsidized housing or medicare that poor people receive in addition to their wages. Yet the “poverty level” in American-spending-power dollars is more than 10 times higher here than the 3.10 used worldwide. Any single person making less than $1000 a month is considered impoverished. We had 4 kids before we had an income high enough to disqualify us for free lunches for poor families. But we owned our own home, had two cars, and had all the food and clothes we needed.

So our standard of living is so high that we consider a person poor here, when they would be wealthy by the standards used in most countries around the world. Freedom and the companion capitalism has produced that standard unprecedented in world history. So it is completely disingenuous to make a statement like he makes. We define poverty completely differently than most of the world. Even those living exclusively on govt. welfare programs are wealthy by global poverty standards.

Co’ops can work well within a capitalist system in small niches. In all the reading and watching that I did, I saw evidence of NOT ONE coop business that was a social system in itself. The coops were each a hybrid form that needed capitalism as a foundation. It’s a business model that can be successful as long as there are outside customers to buy the product and a donor to start the business in the first place.

Jim Brown used the Freedom Quilt guild as an example of a successful coop but they best demonstrate why it doesn’t work long term. The market for quilts eventually diminished. Also members retired or moved on. In a free system, that will eventually happen with every sort of non-food producing coop. Coops are specialized. When the market changes, they can’t readily adjust. IF in the happy circumstance that they can’t meet demand, they hire people to work for them like any other corporation. There is not an unlimited supply of quilters and if prices are too high, it kills the market. The Freedom group moved to mass production model with hired wage earners. The biggest downside to the coop business model is their inflexibility. Without a saavy president or CEO anticipating market changes and creating new avenues for marketing or products, recruiting new members etc, the coop stagnates and then dies away. The Quilters Freedom coop went through all of these stages and eventually dwindled away. That county in Alabama is STILL one of the poorest in the nation. So the coop was a temporary fix for a larger problem.

The laundries and solar companies (she sent me links to testimonials about a laundry business and a solar panel company) are worker owned, but they are HIRED initially and then can spend part of their wages to invest in the company. And before any of that can operate, an investor must build the facility. There always has to be a donor. There have to be leaders also to organize and devise rules of operation. So though they are slated as “worker owned” without leaders or CEO’s, that’s not actually true. The philanthropist that starts the laundry or the solar business may not be making more than the average worker, but he works for his mansions on high. Of course this requires an entirely altruistic wealthy individual and so we’re back to the pure-hearted donor making his money from an outside source.

As I looked at all the models, each coop has the same potentially limiting factors. The laundry provides a little more prosperity and opportunity to it’s worker/owners for a while, but the local hospital could close. The market demand is stable so there is no growth potential for the business or for the individuals. The market for clean linens could be swept away in the grunge revolution. Or eventually (hopefully) the next generation will want to do something more fulfilling than laundry, get an education and find better employment. The market for laundry workers will age out, just as it did with the quilters. The market for solar will eventually be saturated or someone will invent a superior product that will make that business obsolete. (Do you know that solar generators have a life expectancy almost precisely equal to the time it takes for them to pay for themselves in costs saved?)

You may remember that I worked at a factory job. I silkscreened football jerseys in Licking MO. My factory coworkers were poorly educated, and told me they spent of lot of income on booze and smokes. Pay started at about 15% above minimum. The factory was their world and it was striking how little interest they had in leaving their sphere. I never perceived a feeling of resentment toward the college educated employees who started at triple their wage. They worked in an adjacent building but it simply wasn’t in the silk screeners’ path. When I explained to some of my coworkers that I was getting married and going back to school and would probably not live in MO again after my marriage, they wondered at it and explained it to themselves that I wasn’t from there, so I had different ideas. They had no thought of doing anything different from what they were doing and were apparently content. It wasn’t that they could leave, it was that they had no interest in leaving.

The perception about how much CEO’s earn relative to employees is VASTLY exaggerated in most cases. Companies paying CEO’s huge incomes proportionately to business results are a tiny fraction of business that make up the American economy. There are over 7000 companies listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE. Only one third of American workers work for a business that is publicly traded, and the statistics used on the anti-CEO websites are a reflection of about 5% of publicly traded companies. (The largest 200) So those extreme examples used in the propaganda represent less than 2 percent of total American businesses. There is a strong relationship to the size of a company and the size of the executive’s paychecks. So the reporting is done on the exceptions to a great degree. The idea that overpaying CEO’s is a systematic practice throughout AMerica is not supported by data. They use only the portion of companies most likely to have that condition and present it as the normal. They generalize falsely just as they do with poverty numbers and give a grievously false impression of the true condition. There again, of course CEO’s pay is also the result of supply and demand. If the cost of an effective leader starts at a dollar but there’s only one in 10,000 who can do the job properly, businesses would be dumb not to offer to hire a competent leader at a much higher cost rather than an incompetent just because he or she is cheaper.

Many many American companies have profit sharing programs. At Farmers Insurance, where Jeff worked his whole career, employees are given a percentage of their wage based on meeting company goals and performance. Everyone wins when the CEO leads well, the investors invest well, the claims workers do their jobs well, the salesmen do their job well, etc, etc. Every company has some elements of Coop theory if they want to thrive. Capitalism allows them to be rewarded for working together well.

There is a catch phrase that people often accept which is blatantly false. “In a free (capitalistic) economy, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This is contradicted by the statistics. As the standards of living rise for the rich, they rise for the poor. When the rich are richer, the poor have more opportunity.When the rich are getting richer, unemployment is reduced. Our economy is thriving now and we have almost reached a statistical zero unemployment rate. (That disregards those who do not seek to be employed) When the economy is thriving, charitable contributions soar. But when the economy is downturning, charitable giving does not follow that same pattern and remains proportionately high.

I recently did a study on the relationship between charitable giving and political leanings. People may call themselves “Liberal” but they are anything but that when it comes to charitable giving. The more blue any given state is the lower the percentage of personal income donated to charitable organizations of any variety. Utah led the nation in charitable giving, not only to the church but also to other charitable organizations as percentage of income.

Note what has happened with this recent corporate tax cut. Companies all over the country are announcing employee bonuses, hiring new employees and raising wages. New businesses are starting. When businesses thrive, opportunity abounds. When a controlling entity of governance skims off the cream, the leftovers are weaker and watered down. If you examine national economies around the world, the median standard of living is directly proportionate to the level of freedom the people enjoy.

In China, we learned that the current chairman traveled around the world and recognized that capitalistic countries lived better. He decided to allow a higher level free enterprise in one section of China, (the area nearest Hong Kong). That region quickly blossomed into the most prosperous in the country. So they allowed more free enterprise elsewhere and got the same result. Our guide concluded that it was “a very good thing for China. People are happier and they can do things they never could do before.”

To my knowledge, the purest attempt to live by the principles of an economic coop system were with the Mormons in Kirtland around the 1840s. They started with donors. In one instance that demonstrates the whole, a thriving farm was donated to the Church for the cooperative use and labor of the members. Within a few years, (I think it was only 4 years!) the farm was in serious disrepair. There were several families living there in squalor and nobody was doing the hard labor of farming. There was nothing wrong with the farm. There was nothing wrong with the principle. But the recipients were not ready to make the sacrifices necessary for the benefit of a community without gaining more than subsistence for their work. There was nobody with knowledge and experience of farming directing the operation either. Human nature is self centered. Only a perfectly righteous and pride-free society will ever or has ever succeeded with a purely cooperative form of society.

Current coop systems are much more similar to conditions of slaves. They work for their subsistence but they are strictly limited to the sphere of the coop, where they can never penetrate the iron limits of the business model. Even skilled American slaves were generally allowed to keep half their earnings. In a true coop system without any free enterprise, a worker has no incentive to work an extra hour or do something extra well because he/she has to divide the benefit with 50 other people. Skilled slaves, on the other hand, worked twice as hard, but they got to keep at least part of the resulting prosperity. A coop is far better than idleness. It’s main success is that it can provide a more stable home life for youth so that they can receive an education and partake in the vast opportunities this nation offers.

I have been interested in the Kiva micro loans which enable donors to give small loans, often to coops around the globe. The coops generally work to provide subsistence. The nature of the coop prevents them from thriving much beyond that sphere because of the limiting factors mentioned above, limited market, limited flexibility and the diminishing work force. MOST of those applying for KIVA loans write that they want to earn more so that they can send their children to school. They demonstrate the power of free enterprise allowing upward rising. Those who don’t belong to coops apparently rise much faster, even if they have a similar starting point regardless of the industry.

One last point. You cited the flat wage growth over time for lower income earners. I looked carefully through the most current charts and noticed a huge flaw in that interpretation of the data. Mean income is measured for certain ranges. Data shows that the income for the poorest segment of society has risen somewhat over the last 60 years. Each level measured, (poor, lower middle, middle, upper middle, wealthy and top 5% has seen a steady increase, but with the wealthiest much wealthier than 60 years ago. So it might suggest that the poor are downtrodden and the wealthy are hogging prosperity. But what those charts don’t show is the fact that each of those segments of the population is fluid. During that 60 year period, I have moved in and out of the very lowest almost to the highest. So it utterly fails to depict the truth that I used to be poor and now I’m rich and that is true of my generation. What I wonder is, why is the poorest class better off at all? Probably because their now-wealthy parents are sharing with their adult children. Our children don’t have to eat beans and rice for very long. Doesn’t the upward trend on each level of income prove that capitalism raises the entire society, even those who contribute the least? Today’s poor are not as poor as we were and the entire nation trends upward in economic security. This is not true in any other model other than when saints live collectively in righteousness.

Off topic, sorta. California is raising their minimum wage. The budget office estimates that this will cause the net loss of 450,000 jobs over five years as they phase it in. Who will be most injured by this effect? The lowest income earners. This is reverse capitalism and its effects are devastating to prosperity. The upper earners will move to a more business friendly state, (as they are already doing.)

Capitalism isn’t perfect. There are predators and there is corruption in the human race and capitalism has no protection inherent in it. Yet for raising the standard of living for an entire society, no other system can touch it statistically. No other system can even come close. In my observation, this prosperity also reaches the poorest peoples in the world. Poverty, world wide is getting better by inflation adjusted numbers and much of that is because wealthy people share. Our nation shares it’s prosperity both directly and by buying the products made around the world.

Pew research indicates that Americans’ wealth increases with age and genuine progress has been made against poverty. Here’s a link to some interesting data

The new year seems like a great time to consider the last year and plan how to do better. I ask myself what I want to change about myself and what I need to do to draw closer to my Heavenly Father.

My daughter-in-law, Kelsi Stephenson is a high adventurer and a gifted editor. She chose video editing for her recap medium. Here’s the link.https://vimeo.com/249472064?ref=fb-share&

For some reason the link keeps getting removed so I took off the number 1 off the end. So cut and paste the link and then add a 1 at the end. Let’s see if this works!

The most important change that I see for my life is to forgive those who have offended me. By not forgiving, I only make myself unhappy.

But it isn’t easy. I need to pray each day to control my thoughts and not to ruminate on things that make me unhappy and drive away the Holy Spirit.

But the Lord promises that if we we turn to Him, he will make weak things become strong. I know He can and will help me overcome the temptation to resent and review my justification for disliking others.

I know that in the eternal scope, the offenses are not significant. If I can only draw back and see the broader view, it’s easier to feel charity toward others and shrug off their petty issues.

All my best to all of you! Happy, healthy, productive and peaceful New Year.

This trip was styled a little differently than other trips we’ve done. We saved a ton of money by scheduling the trip according to the Kayak explore site’s lowest airfares. We flew to LA on a separate itinerary first because most international flights are much cheaper out of LA.

Hubby Jeff also opened an Air BnB account earlier this year, so we can find very inexpensive lodging all over the world.

We saved over a hundred dollars between us by using only carry-on backpacks and not checking any luggage. I really like the backpacks, too because as we are boarding buses and travelling in the country, they’re easy to carry and maneuver.

We ate simply. Another advantage of the Air BnB’s is that most allow kitchen privileges. Our regular diet is less disrupted that way too.

In country travel by bus was very inexpensive. They’re easy to navigate and I loved the sense of cultural immersion.

The Tripadvisor site helped us find the best tour companies. We were delighted with the suggestions on rafting, jungle hike, and Mitad de Mundo. (equator site).

When we go to Europe next, we’ll use these same concepts but ride Ryan Air between countries. It’s prices are amazing, but on that airline, you even have a fee for carryon luggage. (I guess you could wear all your clothes and take them off when you got to the country!)

My friend Suzanne asked me for the food list I made a few years back.I didn’t find the exact list but a general sketch toward the bottom of “How does a Pauper live like a prince? Budgeting can be fun.” (search for it on the homepage) There’s another one on the same theme titled “Saving money in the OKC area.” That one is somewhat outdated because food is actually less expensive now than it was.

My goal was to live for a month on $70 (for four people) and I managed it.

I can give a quick overview from memory. We ate beans, rice, potatoes, corn tortillas and pasta. I made everything from scratch. I kept fresh bananas, onions, carrots, potatoes, cabbage and frozen broccoli, and peas on hand.

All meat was served in a sauce or soup and always prepared it with chopped onions.

I made cookies or brownies from scratch and sent some in packed lunches each day.

I made homemade bread.

We had a box of powdered milk on hand and always had a loaf of bread in the freezer. This helps prevent an emergency run to the store

I bought 4 dozen eggs at the beginning of the month and sometimes served omelets for dinner.

For breakfasts, we ate oatmeal, other hot cereals, toasted homemade-bread and sometimes made-from-scratch cocoa. Every breakfast contained a starch and milk.

Meat was used only for dinners. Lunches were generally peanut butter sandwiches or tomato soup with chili added, or leftovers.

Beth M Stephenson

All I ever wanted to be was a wife and mother and my sweetheart Jeff and I have seven wonderful, intelligent, vibrant, funny, righteous, dynamic and hardworking children. But my little squirts grew up. Somebody invented computers and I found myself becoming a writer, too. I grabbed a degree (distance learning) from BYU in English and American literature because I believe that I need to know great literature in order to produce it.
Now I am a novelist, a newspaper columnist, a blogger, a poet and a freelancer.
When I'm not writing, you'll find me exploring the world, researching history, planting my garden, enthralled with a good book, experimenting in my kitchen, playing with my camera or working on Public Affairs for my Church. I'm a Mormon, yessiree, dyed-in-the-wool, true blue, through and through!

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